Bloggers are using up a great deal of bandwidth this week on discussion of Texas House races. They're also talking about U.S. House contests, discussing U.S. Senate happenings and touching upon the topic of the state Senate. And there are some random posts, too.

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Full House

State Rep. Aaron Peña, D-Edinburg, is officially seeking reelection: "That should end one nasty rumor," he says in his A Capitol Blog. Peña is looking at a strong challenge from fellow Democrat Eddie "Touch the Tip of Your Nose With Your Finger" Saenz, says Capitol Annex, who's wishing Peña all the best despite his status as a "Craddick D."

After hearing state Rep. Phil King's idea to support schools through sales tax revenue, Texas Politics, the Houston Chronicle's blog, says, "Good luck with that." Burnt OrangeReport remarks, "I see now why Parent PAC has recruited a primary challenger to Craddick supporter Phil King," while Annex quips, "Oh, Rep. King. You are deliberately trying to get sent home by the voters, aren't you?"Annex adds that the Parent PAC recruit is Weatherford Mayor Joe Tison. Kuff's take is here.

And in an earlier post on King, Burnt Orange refers to state Rep. Tom Craddick, R-Midland, as "Speaker Cracker Barrel." On a more serious note, BurkaBlog explains why the Weatherford Republican's proposal just won't work, seriously.

Former House District 10 candidate Lorenzo Sadun throws his weight behind fellow Democrat and current HD-10 wannabe Dan Grant in this Burnt Orange post.

Brian Thompson is taking a crack at state Rep. Dawnna Dukes in HD-46's Democratic primary, says Burnt Orange. In a post laced with profanities, McBlogger elucidates his position against Dukes, while muckraker takes credit for outing an indiscretion by Dukes in 2004.

Tim "the guy who likes talking cows" Kleinschmidt, a Repbulican, is taking another stab at incumbent Robert L. Cook III, D-Eagle Lake, in HD-17, says Annex.

Edwards Aquifer Authority Chairman Doug Miller is in the HD-73 race, says Burnt Orange. In the Democratic primary, he'll face Daniel Boone (a bonafide descendant of the Alamo defender, apparently). Incumbent Nathan Macias, R-Bulverde, might have a GOP challenger in one Wayne Harrell, a Republican who Burnt Orange (*gasp*) respects.

Democrat Chris Utchell has announced his candidacy for HD-91. In 2006, Utchell ran Democrat Byron Sibbett's campaign for the same seat, according to Burnt Orange. Utchell is a computer technician for Keller Independent School District, proffers Annex.

Eye on Williamson has its eye on retiring state Rep. Mike Krusee, R-Round Rock, speculating that his membership on the National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission could be the plum appointment rumored about on the Internets. (Maybe, but the position is unpaid.) Meanwhile, here's a glowing report on a fundraiser for HD-52 Democrat Diana Maldonado, written by the Maldonado campaign, relayed by Williamson. Here's a list of HD-52 candidates — real and hypothetical — from Off the Kuff.

The online Texas Progressive Alliance is endorsing Dan Barrett, the only Democrat running in HD-97, says Burnt Orange. And if the number of campaign signs has direct correlation to the number of votes, Barrett's going to win the election by a margin of about 91 to 9, according to Burnt Orange. But Burka believes the GOP's baseline advantage in the district will prove enough for Mark Shelton to beat Barrett.

Former Chet Edwards staffer Sam Murphey is in it to win it in HD-55's Democratic primary, says Annex. More on this from Kuff.

Kuff has the news on HD-129, featuring Democrat Sherrie Matula, and also says Texas Democratic Party communications director Amber Moon is not running in HD-144, but that Democrat Joel Redmond, a mortgage broker, is.

CPA Ginny McDavid, a Democrat, is challenging state Rep. Dwayne Bohac, R-Houston, in HD-138, says Annex. Here's an interesting tidbit: McDavid, a former flight attendant, earned the U.S. Air Force's Civilian Desert Shield & Desert Storm Medal.

Democrat Armando Walle has declared his candidacy in HD-140, says Kuff. And Texas Blue has an interview with state Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston, here.

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CD Players

Wayne Avellant, whom Annex dubs "one of those corporate seminar gurus," has thrown down the gauntlet in Congressional District 3's GOP primary, where he'll face incumbent Sam Johnson, R-Plano. Meanwhile, Republican Kevin George garnered 554 signatures for the right to take on U.S. Rep. Ralph Hall, R-Rockwall, in CD-4, says Annex.

"Texas Justice" Judge Larry Joe Doherty, a Democrat, says he's got $300 grand in the kitty for his bid in CD-10, according to Texas Politics. Republican U.S. Rep. John Carter wrote an op-ed for The Hill on the need for bipartisanship, which Williamson finds hilarious. And here's a "Personal Message from District 31 Congressional Candidate Brian P. Ruiz," from Ruiz's Brian P. Ruiz for Congress blog.

Winner of Headline of the Week, by first-round knockout, is Half Empty for a CD-22-related post titled, "Sekula Gibbs Touts Racist Islamophobic Blog." The Grand Old Party's Pete Olsen is officially in the CD-22 hunt, says Annex. And adhering to its appellation, cd 22 watcher has everything you'd ever want to know about CD-22, and more! [eds. note: Each word in that last sentence is a different link. Sheesh!]

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Senate Tenants and Applicants

Burnt Orange has a poll — and the results don't look too good for U.S. Senator John Cornyn. Texas Blue says the poll results indicate "a potential statewide opening for Democrats," not necessarily "a groundswell of support for Democrats."

You know it's getting close that special time of year when legislators are getting called the Grinch. The College Democrats of America oblige with this video on Cornyn, via Burnt Orange. Also in Burnt Orange's A/V club is video of Rick Noriega's official announcement to run (if you're not down with multimedia, here's the text of the speech from Annex) and, to be fair, a real video of Cornyn.

Annex isn't happy with a recent vote by Cornyn regarding the Alternative Minimum Tax.

Democratic U.S. House members from Texas are publicly backing Noriega, relays Annex in this post here. Kuff explains why this is important, here.

Noriega's passed the quarter-million dollar mark in online contributions, reports Burnt Orange, while PinkDome engages in some (off-)colorful hyperbole in this post on U.S. Senate leadership, and takes a moment to diss U.S. Senate race newcomer Marc Smith, a Republican.

Texas Observer Blog takes a good look at the Democratic Primary, featuring Noriega and Ray McMurrey, here. And Burka wonders if Kay Bailey Hutchison's failure to launch a Senate leadership bid could hurt her in a 2010 gubernatorial election.

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Rookie of the Year

State Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, is the Texas District and County Attorneys Association's Freshman of the Year. WTF? says Burnt Orange. Meanwhile, Annex has a CNN clip of the aforementioned FOTY engaging in alleged "asshattery."

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And the Rest

Former Atlanta Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney stepped into the Bayou City this week as part of her Green Party bid for the Presidency, reports Brains and Eggs.

Burnt Orange has a roundup of Democratic declarations of candidacy here.

McBlogger uses the words "craptacular douche," "nebbish" and "irredeemably stupid" in this post on the 2010 gubernatorial race.

Professors-R-Squared has four posts on Presidential candidate Mitt Romney's speech in College Station, one, two, three and four. Here's the take by Chronic, the Austin Chronicle's blog. Here's one by In the Pink Texas. This is what PinkDome has to say on the subject. Here's Texas Politics' two cents. And three from Trail Blazers. Plus one from Memoirs of a Young Conservative.

Burnt Orange interviews Texas Supreme Court candidate Susan Criss, a Democrat. And Grits for Breakfast is calling on some Democrat, any Democrat, to run for the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

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This edition of Out There was compiled and written by Patrick Brendel, who hails from Victoria and finds Austin's climate pleasantly arid. We cherry-pick the state's political blogs each week, looking for news, info, gossip, and new jokes. The opinions here belong (mostly) to the bloggers, and we're including their links so you can hunt them down if you wish. Our blogroll — the list of Texas blogs we watch — is on our links page, and if you know of a Texas political blog that ought to be on it, just shoot us a note. Please send comments, suggestions, gripes or retorts to Texas Weekly editor Ross Ramsey.

The National Football League wants baseball-style parleys with two big cable companies, but Texas legislators aren't sure they have the authority to schedule the game.

The footballers want lawmakers, in the 2009 session, to appoint a third-party arbitrator to preside over talks, the way baseball handles owner-player talks: The NFL and cable companies would each submit a proposal, including distribution size and price, and then the mediator would pick one. The cable companies say they want no part of that.

During a special meeting of the House Committee on Regulated Industries, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones asked legislators to force Time Warner and Comcast to the arbitration table over the price and distribution of the NFL Network. (Jones is also head of the owners' NFL Network Committee.)

On Nov. 29, the Cowboys beat the Green Bay Packers in a game available only on the NFL Network — causing Cowboys fans outside of the Dallas-Fort Worth area to either find something else to do, to seek out a satellite dish, or to find a bar showing the game. Many of the disgruntled also chose to complain to their local lawmakers.

From the committee's point of view, the issues are twofold: Whether the committee has jurisdiction over the issue, and if so, what it should do.

"My impression is that Texas doesn't have jurisdiction about program content," said committee Chairman Phil King, R-Weatherford, after the meeting. He tends to view the disagreement as a problem between two businesses, he said, but didn't give a timetable for a decision.

The NFL wants to charge cable companies 70 cents per customer per month and to include the NFL Network in their basic cable packages, along with golf and hockey channels owned by the cable companies. The cable companies want to add the NFL Network to a special sports package — costing $5 to $8 per month — that already includes baseball and basketball, or alternatively, to offer NFL Network games on a pay-per-view basis. Basic cable customers wouldn't pay for what they aren't watching, and in the pay-per-view plan, the NFL would keep all the proceeds.

Goodell and Jones argued that Time Warner and Comcast have an unfair advantage in the Texas cable market and that, since fair competition does not exist, the Legislature should intervene on the behalf of NFL fans.

Cable proponents disagreed: "Competition is alive and well in the video market in Texas," said former Rep. Todd Baxter, now a lobbyist for the Texas Cable and Telecommunications Association.

The Federal Communications Commission has express jurisdiction over this exact kind of dispute, said Howard Symons, also with the cable association.

Goodell and Jones accused the cable companies of giving preferential treatment to less popular channels the cable companies own (concerning things like cooking and shopping), another matter over which Symons said the FCC has express authority.

That was countered by University of Texas at Austin law professor Ernie Young. He said the NFL's proposal is for the state to provide a less costly and less complex forum in which to resolve a dispute about federal law, something well within a state's rights.

"I think the law professor made a very powerful argument," said state Rep. Will Hartnett, R-Dallas. "But the ability to do something is a long way from doing it."

The NFL got some support from Larry Darby, an economic and financial consultant based in Washington, D.C.: "The playing field is still not level, and there are still considerable benefits to incumbency for telecommunication and cable companies."

Darby, who's been involved with telecommunications deregulation since the 70s, said the NFL paid for his trip to Austin but that he was testifying on his own behalf. Large cable companies still enjoy significant advantages over their competition, Darby said. He also presented research purporting that cable companies do favor their own shows over independent programming.

"Incumbents will not yield dominance without a fight," Darby said.

"I'm just interested in getting this dang thing settled," said Rep. David Swinford, R-Dumas.

Swinford said his city's government loses money every time someone switches to satellite from cable and that makes him think the Legislature might have some jurisdiction over the matter.

Baxter suggested that cities could tax satellite and cable companies the same amount (an idea that caught the attention of San Antonio City Councilman John Clamp, who was in attendance).

Rep. Rene Oliveira, D-Brownsville, said his constituents worry that the NFL is planning to reduce the number of games shown on broadcast TV for free.

The NFL has been yanking free games from its viewers, Baxter said, noting that 20 percent of Texas households have antenna TV only, and in some regions, like Oliveira's, the number is 36 percent or higher.

Goodell said broadcast customers miss access to only 25 of the NFL's 256 regular season games per year only on cable. And he said that's not likely to go up much, if any. He said the NFL's popularity is built upon free TV, and revenue from games shown on subscription TV will allow for games to continue to be shown on free TV.

—by Patrick Brendel

Add Dawnna Dukes to the list of Texas lawmakers misreporting credit card spending by their campaigns.

Nearly a third of the Austin Democrat's spending over the last eight years went through 19 credit card accounts. That's legal, but the law requires candidates to say where they spent the money rather than listing the credit card company as a vendor. She did the latter.

From 2000 to the latest report filed last July (the years for which electronic reports were available from the Texas Ethics Commission), Dukes spent a total of $296,377 (rounded).

That total included $89,697 spent on credit cards and not attributable to any particular vendor. It includes, for instance, $32,247 spent on American Express. While her reports describe the items purchased — furnishings, meals, rental cars, air fare, lodging, printing, gifts, and so on — they don't include information about where those things were purchased, what hotels and airlines and printing companies she paid.

Her reports do include such details on purchases that didn't involve credit cards. Her overall spending over that eight-year period — just under $300,000 — was relatively light when compared to others in the House. But about 30 percent of it isn't traceable to any particular vendor. There's no way to know, for those purchases, who the Dukes campaign was doing business with, where she was staying on trips, or even the destinations of some of those trips.

Earlier this year, the Houston Chronicle outed more than a half-dozen lawmakers with the same mistake in their campaign finance reports, including Rep. Rick Noriega, D-Houston, who's now seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate. He and all but two others quickly corrected their reports on file with the state (the state's online database doesn't show any corrections by Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, and Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio). Noriega's report was corrected, but the state fined him $1,000 for the transgression this week, reducing his penalty to that amount from the $10,000 they could have fined him.

Elsewhere in her report, Dukes was specific about where the money went. Dukes spent $17,054 reimbursing herself for various things, $7,546 on furnishings for her campaign and state offices, $11,764 for gasoline, $5,700 at Office Max, $22,677 on phones and cell phone services, $987 on cable TV, $465 for "radio equipment" for her office, and $279 for XM Satellite Radio.

The reimbursements included a $2,500 payment that covered expenses from another report; that earlier report, however, didn't include a form for spending by the candidate herself. And the spending was counted against the campaign twice, first as normal campaign expenses for goods and services, then as a reimbursement.

The spending on gasoline sounds odder before you break it down. Assuming gasoline prices of $2.75 per gallon (it covers more than just the price you're paying now) and assuming she gets just 15 miles per gallon, it's enough for 64,167 miles. Her home in Pflugerville is 16.3 miles from the Capitol. With our assumptions and that mileage, her spending would cover 1,968 trips from home to the Pink Building and back. That's 246 round-trips every year, or about the number of work days in a 50-week work year. A caveat: If average gas prices were lower, her mileage was better, or she didn't go to work every day, then some explanation's in order.

Dukes wasn't immediately available for comment (she's been out of town or otherwise tied up since we first called last week). Colin Strother, her campaign consultant, says she started reporting the credit card expenditures correctly when the Ethics Commission sent a "tip sheet" to lawmakers in June. That sheet — the second page of the document found here — says "the name of the vendor who sold the goods or services is always disclosed as the payee. DO NOT disclose as the payee the name of the credit card issuer." That reminder doesn't refer to a new law. The reporting rule it refers to has been in place since before Dukes first ran for office in 1994.

So why are people reading Dukes' campaign finance reports? She hasn't had a serious contest since that first one, when she beat two other Democrats vying to succeed Rep. Wilhelmina Delco, D-Austin. She's faced mostly Libertarians (she beat a Democratic challenger in 2000) and has never dipped below 72 percent in a general or primary election since the 1994 race.

But she might have a battle this time. Some of her Democratic colleagues have been trying to recruit a primary opponent because of Dukes' support for Republican House Speaker Tom Craddick, who rewarded her with spots on the Appropriations and Calendars committees. Nobody's filed against her, but Austin lawyer Brian Thompson has filed a campaign treasurer report, which allows him to raise money while he decides whether he'll get in.

The last election of the year will be over next week, with either Dr. Mark Shelton or Dan Barrett winning the remaining year of Anna Mowery's time in Fort Worth's House District 97.

It is, on paper, a Republican district, and all but one of the five Republicans culled in the first round has endorsed Shelton. Former Rep. Bob Leonard hasn't. And his backers, quietly, are pushing the same line that Barrett's backers are pushing, loudly. To wit: That Election Day auto-dial calls blasting Leonard and smearing candidate Craig Goldman, as the source were somehow tied to Shelton.

Maybe so.

The Lone Star Project — a Democratic group run by Washington consultant Matt Angle — notes the appearance of Dialing Solutions LLC of Roswell, New Mexico, on Shelton's last campaign finance report. That info wasn't available before voters made their first decisions, but appeared in the reports that were due eight days before the runoff. Shelton spent $1,586 with the company, which has done nearly $300,000 in business in Texas in the last four years, some for groups that have helped House Speaker Tom Craddick stay in control in the Legislature (that's the part of interest to the Democrats at the moment; most of the group's work — $254,271 of it — was done for Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst). Shelton has said that if he wins a full term next year, he'd support another term as speaker for Craddick. Barrett's a "no" vote. Leonard wouldn't state a position before the special election, leading many local politicos to conclude he's also a "no."

The runoff election is Tuesday. And although filing is underway for the regular election for a full term in that office, Shelton is the only Republican who's filed; a spokesman for Leonard says his guy hasn't decided whether he'll run.

Oh, yeah, the reports! Barrett raised $72,607 and spent $46,365 between the last days of October and the first week of December. With eight days left before the runoff, he had $20,923 in the bank. He got $5,000 from the Fort Worth Firefighters along with contributions from the House Democratic Campaign Committee, $4,057, and the Texas Parent PAC, $2,225. Shelton raised $78,938, spent $105,061, and ended with $39,380 in the bank and $50,000 in outstanding personal loans to his campaign. His contributors included Texans for Lawsuit Reform, $25,000, and Houston builder Bob Perry, $10,000.

Push-back on sales tax swaps, and a deal in the middle stages on sales taxes for online and catalog sales.

Swapping higher sales taxes for lower property taxes is a bad idea, says a report from the Center for Public Policy Priorities. They contend it would be hard on Texas businesses, would raise taxes for most Texas families, and would hurt public education, which gets the property taxes in question now and would be in line to get the increased sales taxes.

Rep. Phil King, R-Weatherford, made this topical, saying he and other conservatives have been working on the idea and that he's hoping the House will make it the subject of an interim study on the state's taxes. He wasn't specific about how he'd raise taxes. Replacing the state's school property tax would increase the 6.25 percent sales tax rate by five to six cents on the current tax base; the rate increase would be smaller if lawmakers extended the tax to things that are currently tax-free.

Either way, the CPPP folks say it's spinach. Business would be hurt because Texas would have the highest sales tax in the U.S., a differential that would make Texas prices less competitive. They contend it would be regressive — harder on poorer Texans — though King proposes a year-end rebate for lower income Texans to make it less regressive. And they contend it would be hard on public education, since the revenue from the tax would swing with the economy. The current system, with sales and property taxes, is less susceptible to quick economic changes.

King has said the Texas Conservative Coalition is working on a proposal and that he hopes this will be an issue when the Legislature meets about a year from now.

• While we're in Taxland, Comptroller Susan Combs says the states are moving closer to a deal that'll make it easier to tax online and mail order sales. Stuff you buy online and through catalogs is taxable now, but people ignore that to the tune of about $541 million a year. That's the amount of taxes the state doesn't collect from those sales, Combs estimates. Businesses don't have to collect taxes for the state if they're not located her, and most taxpayers don't voluntarily donate the tax money they save back to the state.

The deal worked out by the Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board — a multi-state panel that's been trying to work out a compromise that can survive battalions of legislators and the U.S. Congress — hinges on whether taxes are applied where things are sold or where they're delivered. Things sold over state lines would be taxed at the destination's tax rate; buy something from an Oklahoma company online, for instance, and your local sales tax would apply. But things sold within the state would be taxed at the origin's sales tax rate. Buy a Dell computer from, say, Fabens, and Round Rock would still get to collect local sales taxes.

Combs will go to the Legislature to ask them to join the SST project, which now includes 22 states. Once enough states have opted in, they'll go to Congress to try to get the system put into federal law.

This is an excerpt from an actual memo circulating in the comptroller's office, possibly proving that there's a link between an office building full of cubicles and a KOA Kampground:

"This is a reminder that the Texas Facilities Commission (TFC), Tenant Manual, 'Section VII. Safety, Security and Shared Areas' prohibits employees in state buildings to use unauthorized appliances in their office spaces. The TFC wishes to provide a hazard-free working environment for all state employees. Failure to comply may result in notification to the proper personnel to ensure compliance. A List of unauthorized and potentially hazardous appliances includes, but is not limited to: air purifiers, aquariums, coffee cup warmers, coffee makers, coffee pots, crock pots, curling irons, desk or floor fans, hot plates, immersible water heaters, indoor grills (such as; George Foreman type grills), microwave ovens, refrigerators, space heaters, steam irons, toaster ovens, toasters, water coolers/dispensers with heating or cooling elements".

San Antonio Republican Francisco "Quico" Canseco has tripped the wire, and anyone who gets into the Republican primary for CD-23 with him can bust the normal spending caps.

That's called the Millionaires' Amendment, and it says that if your opponent tosses more than a certain amount of his own money into the race — it's $350,000 for House candidates — then your donors don't have the normal campaign finance limits. The normal limit is $2,300 per person for a primary election. Once the wire's tripped, though, it jumps to $6,900 in a House race.

That said, Canseco's the only guy in the race so far. Bexar County Commission Lyle Larson has talked about it, and if he waits until next year to file (January 2 is the deadline), he won't have to forfeit his county seat to run. The GOP nominee will face U.S. Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, in November.

Candidates are coming out of the woodwork...

Karen Wiegman, a former Grand Prairie school board member, will try to wrest the HD-106 seat back for the Republicans. She'll challenge Rep. Kirk England, a Democrat elected as a Republican who changed parties earlier this year. She lists herself as a former England supporter — he's in his first term — who can't abide his party switch. England won last year with 49.2 percent of the vote, with a Democrat just 235 votes behind him and a Libertarian taking the rest of the votes. It's a tossup district.

• Corpus Christi teacher Ray McMurrey, seeking the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, starts with a challenge to supporters: Help raise $5,000 before he files for office next week, when he needs to pay that much to the Texas Democratic Party to file for office. He'll jump in on Tuesday.

• Rep. Harold Dutton Jr., D-Houston, has to pay $16,000 in back child support and $8,000 in legal fees after his ex-wife hauled him into court. At issue were support payments for the couple's four sons. Dutton is chairman of the House Committee on Juvenile Justice & Family Issues.

• Fort Worth Sen. Kim Brimer picked up endorsements from the political affiliates of the Arlington Professional Fire Fighters, Fort Worth Fire Fighters Association, Arlington Police Association, and the Fort Worth Police Officers Association. The Republican incumbent will face former Fort Worth City Councilwoman Wendy Davis, a Democrat, in next year's elections.

• If you believe local races drive turnout, watch Harris County. To nobody's surprise, Charles Bacarisse will be running against appointed County Judge Ed Emmett in the March GOP primary. Emmett, a businessman and former state legislator, took the job when Robert Eckels resigned. He wants to win in his own right, and Bacarisse, the former district clerk, wants to knock him off.

On that same turnout theory, the Democratic primary in Travis County could be interesting. Tax Assessor-Collector Nelda Wells Spears faces a challenge from former state Rep. Glen Maxey.

• A dozen Democrats from the state's congressional delegation endorsed Rick Noriega in his bid to unseat U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a San Antonio Republican. That's one Democrat short of a load. Missing is Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, who says, through a spokesman, that he's voting for the Democrat but not endorsing. He just doesn't do that, the spokesman says.

• Randy Dunning, one of three candidates in the hunt in HD-112, got endorsements from Republican National Committeewoman Denise McNamara and from Rep. Jodie Laubenberg, R-Parker. Dunning, a former Garland city councilman, is running against Angie Chen Button and James Shepard. Rep. Fred Hill, who's got the seat now, isn't seeking reelection. And everyone in this paragraph, to simplify things, is a Republican.

• Meanwhile, in Houston, there's some political cannibalism underway. Sen. Dan Patrick, R-Houston, is backing a Republican challenger to a Republican lawmaker in a district overlapped by Patrick's own Senate district. It's probably not unprecedented, but it's out of the ordinary. Patrick won his seat by beating a Houston city council member and two Texas House members. One, Joe Nixon, was supported by Rep. Corbin Van Arsdale of Tomball. All are Republicans. That's the context, and now, we'll quote from Patrick's letter on behalf of former Houston policeman Allen Fletcher, who is taking on Van Arsdale in the primary: "Last year, we learned together how difficult it was to win against the establishment's candidate; it will be even tougher to win against the establishment's incumbent candidate."

The publisher of a math textbook wants Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott to overrule the State Board of Education, after the board voted to reject the use of math books already in use in 30 school districts.

Everyday Mathematics is the third-grade book of choice in more than two dozen districts including the second-largest, Dallas, and one of the best, Highland Park. But last month, the SBOE voted not to put it on either the "conforming" or "non-conforming" lists of books for use in Texas public schools. They put it on a list of "rejected" books, meaning school districts can use it but that the state won't help pay for the books.

The board's vote — actually a tie — followed the recommendation of Educational Research Analysts. They knocked the book for allowing students to depend on calculators over memorization and for not providing timed quizzes, among other things. The book apparently meets the state's curriculum requirements.

Now the publisher — McGraw-Hill — is asking Scott to put the book on the conforming or non-conforming list before the end of the year. If he decides not to overturn the board's decision, they can take it to court.

The SBOE decision wasn't legal, the publisher says, because rejecting the book wasn't one of the board's options once they found it met at least 50 percent of the state's curriculum requirements. And the vote was weird. One member of the board was absent, leaving 14 members there to vote. One abstained, and seven voted to put the book on the non-conforming list; that same group then voted to put it on the rejected list. Since there weren't eight votes — a majority on the 15-member board —the vote to reject wasn't legal, the company says in its briefs.

Lawmakers asked Attorney General Greg Abbott — in two different rounds — about the powers and duties of the Speaker and the House and how and whether to conduct elections and coups. And here are the requests and the shower of legal briefs that followed:

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Briefs and other documents from the inquiry over the powers of the Speaker of the House:

06/18/07 Request for Opinion (RQ-0589-GA): Reps. Jim Keffer and Byron Cook

06/20/07 Reply and Request for Briefs: Attorney General

07/19/07 Supplemental request (RQ-0605-GA): Rep. Will Hartnett

07/20/07 Brief: Speaker Tom Craddick

07/20/07 Brief: Rep. Warren Chisum

07/20/07 Brief: Parliamentarian Terry Keel

07/23/07 Brief: Former Speaker Rayford Price

07/25/07 Brief: Rep. Dan Flynn

07/31/07 Brief: Common Cause

08/01/07 Brief: Texas Progressive Alliance

08/03/07 Brief: Rep. Charlie Geren et al

08/03/07 Brief: Rep. Jodie Laubenberg

08/03/07 Brief: Rep. Leo Berman et al

08/03/07 Brief: Rep. Bill Callegari

08/03/07 Brief: Rep. Jim Pitts

08/03/07 Statement: Craddick on filings of 08/03/07

08/03/07 Supplemental brief: Parliamentarian Terry Keel

08/03/07 Letter: Rep. Jim Dunnam

08/03/07 Brief: Rep. Brian McCall

08/08/07 Supplemental brief: Speaker Tom Craddick

08/09/07 Letter: Rep. Charlie Geren

08/10/07 Letter: Parliamentarian Terry Keel

08/20/07 Memo: Rep. Jim Dunnam on Abbott and Craddick

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Quickie background: At the end of the legislative session, House Speaker Tom Craddick held off a challenge to his leadership post by telling members he had "absolute power" to deny their efforts to be recognized for motions to remove him from the chair.

In two different requests, lawmakers asked Attorney General Greg Abbott for his opinion — which isn't legally binding — on six questions:

1 — Are the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate "legislative officers" who can be replaced by legislators according to House and Senate rules, or "state officers" who can only be removed as described in the Constitution?

2 — If a Speaker or a President pro tempore in the Senate is constitutionally impeached, does that cost the officeholder his or her seat in the Legislature, or just the leadership gig?

3 — If a Speaker is legally removed during a legislative session, does the House have a legal obligation to name a replacement or do they have to leave the seat empty?

4 — Does the Speaker have unlimited discretion about whether to recognize members' motions, including a motion to remove that Speaker?

5 — Do senators have the power — by Constitution or rule — to remove the president of the Senate by a majority vote, and at any time? Or is removal governed by the Constitution?

6 — Does the president of the Senate have the power — constitutionally or by rule — to refuse to recognize a motion by a senator to vacate the chair?

The first four questions were posed by Reps. Jim Keffer, R-Eastland, and Byron Cook, R-Corsicana. They closed their letter asking "whether there is any limit to the speaker's power in the face of House Rule 5, Section 24" — the rule cited by Craddick when he said the speaker has an "absolute" power to recognize or not recognize questions and motions from the floor of the House. They contend, in essence, that the speaker can control the order of recognition of legislators, but not whether they have a right to be recognized in the first place.

Rep. Will Hartnett, R-Dallas, followed a month later with the last two questions tossing the Senate and its rules fully into the soup. He said in his request to Abbott that he thinks these are political questions and that separation of powers should bar the AG from weighing in on legislative matters. But in case Abbott wanted to jump in, Hartnett wanted him to consider questions about the Senate along with those about the House.

Gov. Rick Perry says in legal briefs filed Friday that his campaign followed finance reporting laws in accepting and disclosing $1 million in late contributions from the Republican Governor's Association. Those contributions came during the final days of the 2006 elections.

Democrat Chris Bell, who finished second in that four-way race, sued Perry's campaign, saying RGA wasn't properly registered to give the money and that Perry's camp broke the law by taking it. Bell also said the governor and RGA were trying to cloak the real source of the money.

In Bell's view, the contributions were made by Houston homebuilder Bob Perry to RGA, which then gave the money to Gov. Perry (the two Perry's aren't related) to hide the homebuilder's involvement.

In his briefs, the governor denies doing anything wrong and asks the court to throw out the case and reward the Republican victor with legal fees.